Nebraska Newspapers

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JA-JjD KJlA) U U UM JLLi
A.' C. HOSMER, Propriotor.
RED CLOUD. - - - NEBRASKA.
SIC TfANSIT.
O wondrous life of joy and strength
While man's young power unspent is.
Through all the ten years' joyous length
The hot and eager twenties :
Next comes the decade sweet and strong,
Yews where no harm or hurt is.
When life pours forth Its fullest song-
The proud and passionate thirties.
Life's summer glows; with flower and fruit
The long day all to short 1.
And well its glorious splendors suit
Our mid-day world, the forties.
Is this she first approach of night
Yes; downward bow our drift is.
As en we fare through waning light.
Slow slaking through the fifties.
SOU closer folds eur narrowing range;
Our fate more sure and fixed is ...
For good or ill, small chance of change '
When once we reach the sixties.
Darkens the shadow of the tomb, .
And either hell or heaven 'tis.
As life, past, present and to come,
Loolrs on us through the seventies.
Shut out from manhood's earlier lores.
How sad the growing weight is
We bear along the dreary course
That lingers through the eighties !
SUllslowlier dips our weary oar,
Dut useless to repine 'tis;
And yet we long to find a shore
Somewhere among the nineties.
Come, kindly death, unfeared. long sought.
Spare us the torturing one dread
That Heaven has dropped us out of thought
Tolear as o'er the hundred!
J. Arthur Binnt, in Harper' WeeXlg.
JIY ADVENTURE.
A Tixno "When I "Was Afraid of
Boingf Frightened.
This is only a story of a girl's adventure,
but I am sure most of the girls who read it
will not wish for any thing more tragic in
their own experience.
I lived with my parents on the sloping
side of Skitchawaug, a long, low mountain
on the west side of tho Connecticut river.
The mountain was nearly covered with
wood, but the trees of the two sides dif
fensd in kind. Sugar-maple, white pine
And whito beech grow more plentifully on
the western slope; blue beech and pitch
pine ou the eastern and the pitch-pine tree
was the indirect oauso of my adventure.
The events I am about to relate took
place long ago. at a time when cone work
wa, among the young ladies of our section,
the leading passion in fancy work. My sis
ter and I had made work-baskets, frames
and brackets, using the scales of the white
pine cones to make a scalloped edge, and
spruce and hemlock and the pretty little
tamarack cones to cover the rest of the
i-wood-work.
But we were dissatisfied because we had
ao pitch-pine cones in our collection. They
were stiff, intractable things, hard to work
nd of HttL'jfenuty, but we wanted them
oecanse weMid not hare them. We knew
there wore pitch-pine trees on the sbulh
xastern slope of the mountains. It was far
we had no idea how far from our usual
qaunts for play or for picnicking, but we
were convinced that we should never know
Happiness till we had some cones from those
trees. It was a long, rough climb, we in
ferred, and we could easily have made a
pleasant excursion of it by a taking a lunch
and spending the day in the undertaking,
but this did not occur to us.
Ellen Story was to accompany us after
school after tea, in fact. The school-house
was half a milo on our way, but as it was a
hastily-formed plan, we were obliged to go
home for our tea.
We had some difficulty in persuading
3iother to consent to our excursion. She
mis born on the side of Skitchawaug, but,
as she had never been of an adventurous
imposition and it was a standing puzzle
that both of her daughters were so different
from herself in this respect she had almost
no knowledge of the wilder parts of the
mountain.
"Do you know where the trees grow?" she
asked.
"O, yes, they're right over the east corner;
we go in by Mr. Howard's gate."
This was true as far as it went, and we
had no intention of deceiving her, though
the truth was none of us had ever seen a
pitch-pine tree to know it.
"Are they near the rattlesnake dens!"
"O. no, I guess not. Don'tcareiftheyare.
You know we always wanted to kill a rattle-
nak"
Mother had seen us start on too many
rjch excursions to hold out long with her
abjections; sometimes we went for chest
nut, and got them by climbing the trees;
sometimes we went after moss, or flowers,
or acorns, and very often we took a full sup
ply of weapons for killing rattlesnakes; but
as we never killed nor even saw one, mother
by and by ceased to fear that we would en
counter any. So. bidding us take some out
side garmeuts and bo sure to leave the woods
before dark. slsc turned to the dairy, and we
toward Skitchawaug.
Although it was late, we strolled along,
talking and planning. We stopped to peep
in at the school-house window, for old sake's
ake, probably, though it was but little more
than an hour since we had left it. Turning
in through the Howard gate, we stopped to
tell our errand. Mrs. Howard discouraged
us more decidedly than mother had done.
"It is too late; it will be dark before you
get there. It is more than two miles from
here."
"It won't take us long to go two miles,"
we answered, stoutly, though somewhat
dismayed. We had not estimated the dis
tance in rods and mile, but I think about
half a mile was the distance I had in mind
-wsea looking beyond Mrs. Howard's.
"But you don't know any thing about It
where you are going. You'd be just as
likely to go into the dogwood swamp or the
rattlesnakes' dens as anywhere."
'I'm not afraid," said I.
"No, Jane Plumlcy, I don't s'pose there
is any thing that you are afraid of. Those
that know nothing fear nothing: but I do
wondsjrour mother let you go."
"O, fi dos't care where wo go!" I said,
without confring what I said.
"Well, Jane, do have a care to keep away
from thesnakes' dens !" These "dons" were
a quantity of loose, shelly rocks on the out
side of the mountain, where the rattlesnakes
were supposed to breed.
Hoping that Mrs. Howard was mistaken
in the distance, but fearing she was not, we
made a little more haste when we started
away from her door; but we soon forgot
about it, and stopped to gather flowers and
ferns and curious lichens on the way. Soon
after entering the woods, we found a quan
tity of white pine-cones so smooth in texture
and so rich in coloring that we made a large
pile by the footof a tree, proposing to gath
er them in our aprons whet, we came back
With ou baskets filled with the others.
Wt aU lived ia the valley, where we en -
3ven ome hours of daylight after we ware
shded by the western hill, so wo were in
no alarm when she sunshine disappeared
from the highest tree-tops, and when the
darkness was fairly upon us, we thought we
had come into a denser part of the forest.
'Let's get out of this dark hole!" said my
sister. We hurried along, but finding it
grew no lighter, we looked up, and through
the leafy canopy we saw tho stars.
"Pitch dark ! Girl's, let's go home." This
seemed the only course for us to pursue, aad
we reluctantly turned back.
"Let's go home by the saw mill," I pro
posed. "O bo, not that war. There's all sorts of
boogers' round the sawmilL"
"Pooh! Who's afraid! I'm going that
way."
In rain the girls urged that the route by
the sawmill was longer and rougher; that a
piece of marsh-ground lay in the way, and
that we must cross the brook on a narrow
foot-bridge. I had no argument in favor of
sny plan, except to say that we should reach
the highway sooner by that route ; but I was
unusuallyobstlnate that night, and repeated:
"I shall go by the way of the sawmilL You
can go which way you choose."
"But we all want to go together," said my
sister. "I asked mother if we might stay
with Ellon to-night."
"I don't want to; rather sleep at home.
You need not wait for me if you get out
first."
Saying which I plunged into a thick
growth of underbrush in the direction of
the sawmilL The way was rougher than I
thought The bushes were very thick and
tangled, but I stumbled along a few rods.
Then I heard, or thought I heard, the girls
calling me. Quite glad of an excuse to for
sake my plan, I turned toward them and
called, but received no answer. I called
again and again, and ran to and fro to avoid
the rocks dimly seen through the iacreas
iag darkness, till I grew quite angry with
them for not answering, but for a long time
I had ne thought of being lost.
When I gave up the hope of overtaking
the girls, I stopped quite bewildered, for I
had lost tho points of compass entirely. I
could not judge of my course by "the lay of
the land," for the mountain rises in combs,
and the growth of trees was so dense that I
could not see the "dipper," which was the
ouly constellation I really knew.
I began to run back and forth at random,
controlled by a fear which every moment
grew more intense, till I seemed to be en
veloped in an atmosphere of terror. I ran
and ran, and screamed and shouted, beat
ing against trees and stumbling over rocks
and roots till at last I fell headlong down a
precipice, only a few feet, probably, though
I seemed to bo falling through miles of
black space.
Dumb with terror, I lay on the soft bed of
leaves where I had fallen. All was dark
ness and silence, except the sighing of the
wind and the cry of a screech-owl in the
distance. I was not brought up in the woods
to fear an owl, but that low, mournful
tremolo, which has brought a chill to many
an older heart than mino, added to the gloom
of the situation.
I lay where I fell till I became calmer.
My fears bad been altogether vague, for 1
bad not once thought of rattlesnakes, cata
mounts or ghosts, with which the mountain
was said to be infested.
I began to reason with myself with such
success that I soon came to the conclusion
that I had not been frightened at all at
least not much and then I formed a plan
for getting home. I arose, peered carefully
round, and started toward the lightest part
of the woods, which I hoped indicated a
clearing. I felt my way slowly between the
trees, which were very small and thickly
set, till on putting my foot carefully for
ward, I set it on one end of some cylindrical
object which yielded under my foot, whilo
the other end flew up and hit me near my
waist.
Without doubt it was a flexible branch,
but my only thought was rattlesnakes, and.
with one wild shriek and bound, I started off
through the woods, frenzied with fear, beat
ing and bruising myself against tiie trees.
Finding that running was out of the ques
tion, I crouched down by the foot of a tree
and waited for the snakes, for I felt sure
that I was just where Mrs. Howard warned
me not te go In the rattlesnake dens. I
fancied I could hear them coming from all
directions, creep, creep, creeping along. But
they never reached me, and after awhile
common-sense came to my aid and instructed
me that snakes did not travel at night. I
breathed freer till the snapplngof a dry twig
supplied me with a new terror. Panthers,
of course! night was Just their time for
prowling, and I made no question but that I
should be dragged away to make a supper
.for a litter of young catamounts within a
few minutes. In less than that time I saw
something which drove serpent and beast
from my mind for the rest of that night.
My father was a singularly fearless man
and taught us to be so. He allowed us to ex
plore the mountain and take our chances,
which, he said, were ten thousand 'to one
that wo never saw a rattlesnake; and tho
last panther known to have been on that
mountain was killed, he told us, eighty
years before. As for ghosts, which were
said to float uneasily over the old cemetery
on the south slope, we did not even so much
as dare mention them in his presence. But
if ever mortal eyes saw a ghost, here was
one.
Just before me was a little opening, and
beyond, under a low, branching hemlock,
was the ghostly presence, swaying and
beckoning to me in the dim starlight. If I
was terrified before I was frozen with horror
now, and I felt my hair rising under my
pink calico sun-bonnet. Again and again I
looked, till I could endure it no longer; then
I covered my eyes till the unseen terror was
worse than tho sight itself.
As I have said, my education in ghosts
and hobgoblins bad been neglected, but Aunt
Chatty, an old woman who sometimes
washed for my mother, had told us of various
"appearances" on the mountain. As the
latest of these apparitions was fifty years
before, we felt tolerably secure, but now
ordinary weeks seem short to the time I
stood confronting that diabolical whiteness
I shut my eyes and counted fifty, one hun-'
dred, even one thousand, but each time I
looked, the appearance stood swaying and
floating before me.
"Speak to a ghost," Aunt Chatty had
said, "and It will disappear."
But what should I say! what conversa
tion could one hold with such a shape! but
any thing was better than this. I deter
mined' to speak, so, closing my eyes and
mustering all my courage, I shouted:
"Gitaeout!"
I cautiously opened my eyes hoping the
coast was clear, but there it was, beckoning
and swaying; I almost thought it grinned
at me.
At last, I thought I might as well go to
meet it and die at once as to stand there
dying of dread and fear. I closed my eyss
again, ran a few steps and opened them
quite near to a white birch tree! The low
branches of the hemlock had swayed ia the
breezo before it, but the stalwart white
trunk certainly neltberswayed nor beckoned
nor yet grinned.
I sat down and cried and laughed In pare
nervousness. The noise woke some bird
lings in the nest over my head, I suppose,
for I heard the mother chirping a soft lulla
by, and the old words: "Ye are of mora
value than many sparrows!" stole into ny
1 fceart with inexpressible comfort.
I now felt that I must spend the nighton
the mountain and make the best of ft. X
found a heap ef dry leaves near the ghastly
birch and broke aquanttty of bouaju from the
swaying hemlock to make me a bed, but be
fore lying down I went back to ray old stand
and looked for ray ghost It was of no use,
it would never be any thing but a stupid
tree again.
I nestled into the soft leaves, drew the
boughs over me, and, though 1 was chilled
with the night air, soon fell asleep.
When I woke again I could see the wan
ing moon through the opening. I shall never
forget how beautiful it looked sailing
through the dark violet sky. I was op
pressed with a sense of loneliness and be
numbed with cold, but felt no fear. No
thought of panther, ghost or serpent crossed
my mind. I drew the leaves and branches
closer round me and fell asleep, murmur
ing: "I laid me down aad slept; I waked;
for the Lord sustained me."
That text hung over the head of ray
mother's bed. I cried a little at first, think
ing of her lying want and comfortable, with
never a thought that I was shivering alone
on the mountain.
When I wok again it was quite day, but
the sky was thickly overoast with clouds.
I sprang up with some of ray eld defiant
manner, but the birohtree Bear had a sub
duing effect on me. I was forced to admit
that Jane Plumley had been afraid, had
grovelled in the most abject terror, terror
of nothing, too. I was accustomed, when
my school-mates refused to join some mad
cap scheme of mine, to taunt them: "O, yon
are afraid you'll get scartl" I had been
afraid I should bo frightened, mortifying as
tho thought was.
When I looked around, I concluded that I
had wandered quite over the crest of tho
mountain and was far down the eastern
slope. My wisest course seemed to be to go
down to tho clearing and ascertain ray loca
tion. A few minutes' walk brought me ia
sight of the road with several houses; the
river and low land seemed hidden behind a
little ridge. I was familiar with the aspect
of the eastern slope, but I looked in vain for
a single familiar object I recalled each
farm in regular succession, but none of them
corresponded with what I saw before me.
Somewhat surprised, I decided to go to
the nearest house and seek Information.
"I'm not obliged to ask them who lives
there, but I can ask the nearest way to Mr.
Phvnley's."
With this thought I started toward a little
brown bouse whose chimney, crowned with
a curling smoke, announced that the occu
pants were up. Presently I saw a man with
a basket; he went to one corner of the gar-,
den and began to throw something into a'
little sty there. Apparently he was feeding,
some baby pigs. I was within four or five
yards of him when, with a great start, I
recognized him as Mr. Howard, our neigh
bor! 1 rubbed my eyes vigorously, for the
scales were dropping from them by the'
dozen.
I was at the very door of the house which
I knew better than any other except my
own home. Within twenty-five reds was
the school-house, the playground, the cairn
rock, the balm of Gilead tree. So firm had
I been in my belief that 1 was oa the east
side that I had looked for a half hour oa a
landscape which was as familiar as the feat
ures of my mother's face, and had not
known it
Fortunately, my footsteps on the sward
were quite noiseless and I had a little time
to recover myself before I was seen. When
Mr. Howard turned he called, cheerily:
''Good morning, Jane; you are out early."
A sob came with my reply.
"Why. what's the matter! Any your folks
sick!" I did not answer. Then, noticing
my trail through the dewy grass he asked :
"Where'd you come from!"
"OtTn the meuntaia" (sob). "Been there
all night" (sob) "I'm 'most froze."
"My senses! Poor child, no wonder. Here,
come into the house.' I hung back a little,
for his kindly words had increased ray sobs
to a genuine boo-hoo.
"Come, there's a good fire. Why ia the
world didn't John Plumley raise the neigh
bors and hunt you up "
"He thonght I was at Mr. Story's." Then
I explained why I was not missed.
"Here, wife! wife!" he called, as he
opened the door, "here's Jaae Plumley; she
lay oa Skitchawaug last night, and I'll be
hanged if I don't b'lieve she was afraid she
should get scart fur once. Wa'n't you,
Jane!"
"Yes," I said, still crying, softly.
"She's a'most froze, wire. Le'me start
up the fire and do you whack up a cup of
coffee for her."
"Poor child!" said Mrs. Howard, almost
crying herself. "Of course she shall have
coffee and biscuits, too. If you don't burn
them to charcoal. Don't you put in another
stick, Seth Howard. I'll kill the fatted calf
if you say so, but you sha'n't burn the house
down "
She brought warm water and bathed my
face which was bruised and blood-stained
from my frequent contact with the trees the
night before. Then I shared their generous
breakfast while Mrs. Howard piled my
plate with every good thing which her
pantry or cellar afforded
"Poor thing, to think of you being out on
that mountain amongst the bears and rat
tlesnakes all night I I shouldn't a' slept a
wink If I had known it"
"Pshaw, Sally! I'll warrant they didn't
trouble Jane; and you didn't see old Muck
leroy either, did you, Jane!"
"No, sir," I replied, emphatically. Old
Muckleroy was a prominent ghost seventy
years before, and tradition had preserved his
fame. You see, I knew positively that I did
not see him, though I did think of him at
onetime.
That is the end of mystery. After break
fast I went home. Of course bo one had
even missed me, but equally of course the
truth had to come out I suffered bo harm
from ray adventure perhaps it did me good.
At least the girls thought so, for I was not
so apt after that to taant them for their
senseless fear of nothing. I had had ray
own experience. Luther Whiltuy,i Tomm's
Compmnlmt.
'A New Sleep-Producer.
Sulfonal, chemically entitled to the
name of "dlaethylsul-fondlMethylme-
than," is a new hypnotic introduced by
Prof. Kast, of rreiburg. Its action,
unlike that of other drugs, appears to
be simply tho intensifying of the fac
tors that lead to natural sleep, and
from five to eight, and even ten hours
of refreshing slumber usually follow its
use. It is said to have none of the dis
advantages of the deadly narcotics, and
to be more reliable than the bromides.
It is claimed to be entirely free from
harmful or unpleasant effects, and to
retain its efficacy even when used for a
long period. It .has already proven
Valuable in the treatment of mental
disorders. Arkansaw Traveler.
Poor, sandy soil should not be left
uncultivated. Carefully prepare the
land, sow to buckwheat, and plow tb
buckwheat under when the crop is it
blossom. In this way the land nay ttj
gradually made productive
-sv, ,;., -
JAPANESE LACQUER.
The Evergreen Tree frosa Which the Im
a or Hum Is Obtained.
Japanese lacquer has been a famil
iar name to tho entire civilized world
for so many years that it is a matter of
surprise to discover how little it is un
derstood. Recourse to the ordinary
books of reference does not repay the
trouble, and only serves to give a
greater realization of the prevailing
ignorance. Exhibitions hare shown
the surface of articles from China and
Japan of marvellous beauty and fin
ish, and have afforded information in
regard to their cost without being
able to give the practical knowledge
which an intelligent public demand.
The little volume entitled "Oriental,"
printed for tho use of visitors to the
Walters galleries, has been for the last
four years the most reliable source,
and it stands alone to-day in the matter
of exact information. The facilities
afforded for a careful study of the ar
tistic individuality in the choice col
lections of lacquer, to which tho public
have access in those galleries, bring
enhanced interest to such facts as can
be gleaned.
The rubs vernicifera, an evergreen
tree, from which the lac or gum is ob
tained, is cultivated in every section of
Japan. As long ago as tho sixth cen
tury an edict of the Emporer required
every landholder to plant a certain
proportion of his acreage with this lac
quer tree, just as he was compelled to
cultivate aud raantain a certain num
ber of mulberry trees, and but for this
governmental support it is doubtful if
the art, even then widely practiced,
would have attained its great perfec
tion. Every tree, when tapped to ob
tain its gum, died in the course of two
years. The amount obtained from a
tree five years old seldom exceeded
three ounces. In tho mountainous dis
tricts the tree was of slower growth,
and was permitted to grow for ten
years before the gum was drained.
Tho gum varied in quality according
to the part of the tree which excluded
it, that from the twigs being most es
teemed and drying with superior hard
ness. Among other uses in very remote
periods lacquer served in finishing cof
fins, probably for ornamentation as
much as because it rendered the wood
impervious to moisture, but its every
day uses were those which gradually
raised it more and more to a place
among the arts. The gum, when ap
plied to the prepared wood, can bo pre
pared with either oil or water. Mod
ern lacquers contain scarcely a trace
of the true gum, and hence it comes
that they do not possess either the en
during qualities or beauty of older
work. True lac will not blister
or peel from the wood, and docs not
change appearance from subjection to
water or heat. The most conclusive
test of this property was in 187:1, when
the steamer Nile, returning to Japan,
with the specimen purchased for the
Yeddo museum, foundered in twenty
five fathoms of water. Eighteen
months after divers employed by tho
Government recovered 200 cases from
tho steamer, and the ancient lacquers
were as perfect in joints, color, and
polish as when they left the hands of
their makers.
It is worthy of note that although
the woods most valued as a basis of
lacquer work are not of kinds wHich
have ever boon esteemed valuable for
their durability, yet. when imprisoned
in the coatings of this gum, they havo
remained as sound for centuries a3
when first fashioned. And this is true
of many specimens 700 years old, exam
ples of which may be seen in the cases
of the Walters galleries. Baltimore
American.
RESURRECTION PLANT.
It Apparently Mem Hut Comes to Life
Agmla When Wet.
This is the resurrection plaat,"
6aid a street peddler to a reporter, who
had stopped to look at the former's
stock in trade. In the middle of his
table was a basket filled with dried
and curled up mosses of a vegetablo
growth. Around it were saucers of
water in which plants were growing.
The peddler explained that the plants
so green and thrifty-looking in tho
saucers were the brown and apparent
ly dead bunches in the basket after
placed for a short time in water.
'They grow in Chihuahua, Mex.,"
said he. "The Mexicans call them
siempre viva, which means, 'always
life The plants exist in the crevices
of rocks, and are subjected to long-continued
and severe drouth. After a rain
they open and turn green, but after tho
water dries up they begin to turn
brown and curl up again, and in a day
will Hoem dead. It is only after show
ers that they can be found readily, as
when they dry they are too near the
color of the rocks to see without a close
search. I go to Mexico every spring
and pick them by the barrel to sell
through tho summer."
The dried plants were each about the
size of a large hen's egg, with the
leaves rolled tightly in towatd a com
mon center. There was a small root
of fibers almost as fine as hair, and at
tached to some were minute pieces of
rock and traces of sand. The peddler
said ho never knew one so old that it
would not unfold when wet for a short
time. He also had several varieties of
Mexican cactus, that he claimed were
rare in the United States. One was
diminutive in size, hardly larger than
a thimble. This was said to be the
ranallest cactus known. Another kind
was ribbed lengthwise, with long spines
standing out in two directions from
each rib. A third was a thick growth
of short but needle-like prickles. All
were small, the biggest sot being over
four inches talL SL Louis Globe-Da.
cral.
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
, The canning of shrimps is becom
ing a great industry in New Orleans.
Fully 100,000 cans s day are packed
there during the season.
A remarkable photo-engraved
chart of the Ploiados, showing 2,326
stars from the third to the seventeenth
magnitude, has been produced at the
Paris observatory.
An eastern inventor has perfected
an electrical type writer, by means of
which a message may be transmitted
over a telegraph wire to almost any
distance, and printed at the other end.
In a report on "Steam Boilor Ex
plosions," recently made to the Liver
pool Engineering Society, it was stated
that "the actual percentage of explo
sions to boilers at work is very small,
being at the rate of one explosion to
every 2,500 boilers in use."
A patented material, said to have
all the properties of lignum vita?, is
prepared in Leipsie, by M. Stockhardt,
from ordinary soft wood. The wood is
first impregnated with oil, then sub
jected to great pressure, causing con
siderable increase in density.
Potates are dried, as fruits are, for
use on ships and in mining camps,
whore the fresh vegetables can not bo
easily procured. The potatoes are
sliced and dried in a common evapora
tor, just as apples are, and when used
are soaked in water twelve hours to
soften and freshen them.
The new sodium-preparing pro
cess, by which caustic soda is distilled
with an intimate mixture of coke and
very finely divided iron, is said to
prove capable of successful working on
a large scale, and it is expected to re
duce the cost of sodium to less than a
fourth of its present price; also to
cheapen the production of aluminum.
Variation in sound is regulated by
the number of vibrations; the more
numerous these vibrations the higher
the sound. The deepest, gravest tone
that is possible for human ear to hear
has thirty-two vibrations per second.
The highest and shrillest has about
70,000. Man's voice can scarcely go
below a sound that gives 164 vibra
tions, nor woman's voice higher than
2,083 vibrations per second.
An interesting collection of com
mercial products, made by Dr. Forbes
Watson, has been acquired by Univer
sity College, Dundee. It containsomo
7,500 samples, embracing between 700
and 800 fibers, over 500 dyes and dye
stuffs, 500 oils and oil-seeds, 600 or 700
gums, resins and guttas, nearly 2,000
medicinal substances, and more than
as many samples of food-stuffs.
Prof. Haupt has calculated that the
opening of two diagonal streets in Phil
adelphia (850.009 inhabitants) would
reduce the extreme distances by one
mile and a quarter. The annual num
ber of passengers carried by the cars
being 125,000.000, the total saving
would reach about $180,000 per mile
traveled. The passengers would gain
3,565 years in time and would save
more than 8.000,000 horse power ii.
motive power.
S SJ SMl
THE IVORY TRADE.
An Industry That Has Been Killed by the
latrodaettea ef Cellalold.
A pair of magnificont elephant's
tusks adorn the- window of an East
Side down-town store and indicate to
the passer-by that ivory goods are sold
there. The proprietor of tho estab
lishment told a reporter, that the tusks
are the largest and most valuable in
the country, and that they came from
Africa nearly a score of years ago and
have been in his possession ever since,
the tusks are nine feet long, weigh 130
pounds each and are valued at $800.
"Is there much doing in Ivor' at tho
present time?" asked the reporter.
"Nothing at all," was the reply, "or
next to nothing, I should say," he con
tinued, "for of course there will
always be more or less of a demand
for ivory, but practically the business
is dead and celluloid has killed it
"Why," he went on, "every thing
that was made of ivory a few years
ago is made of celluloid to-day, and a
great many other things besides. How
many pianos in these days have ivory
keys do you think? Only the most
expensive, and then, too, combs and
brushes, umbrellas and cane handles,
billiard and pool balls, and even dice.
Yes, I saw a set of dice the other day
that were made of celluloid that you
could scarcely tell from ivory, so per
fectly were they done.
"The latest thing, however, in the
celluloid line that I have heard of is in
the shape of playing cards. It is said
that they are in every way superior to
the ordinary pasteboard articles, for
they can be easily washed when they
become soiled, and are so prepared
that the colors will not wash off.
Another attraction, their cheapness,
will undoubtedly mako them popular,
and I believe they will supplant the old
fashioned cards altogether when they
become more generally known."
"To what use are old and broken
billiard balls put?" inquired the re
porter. "Well, those that are only slightly
chipped or broken are readily turned
down into balls suitable for bagatelle
or parlor games, but those that aro
badly broken are thrown away as use
less. If the billiard rooms should all
close up we would find little to do in
our line. All first-class billiard saloons
are provided with Ivory balls, for the
celluloid imitations have found but lit
tle favor in the eyes of billiard players.
With the pool table, however, the case
is different, for the majority of pool sets
in this city are made of celluloid.
Where we sold one hundred set of pool
balls a few. years ago, even without
considering the natural growth of the
I trade, we sell less than twenty to-day.
jr. T. Letter. . -
.
FOR FLESHY PEOPLE.
Aa Ontliae of the Schweninger Treatment
for Obesity.
The system of Prof. Ernst Schwenin
ger for the treatment of obesity, which
was introduced hero about two years
ago, has by this time been sufficiently
tested to demonstrate that any body
who will determinedly follow the regi
men prescribed by it can reduce bis)
flesh to any reasonable degree desired,
it being understood, of course, that his
physical condition is not such by rea
son of incurable heart or kidney
disease as to make reduction perilous.
And there is just one thing about it
that is hard to get used to. That is the
absolute prohibition of all liquids dur
ing meals and for an hour before and
an hour after each meal. It does not
seem so difficult to do without fluids to
wash down one's food until it is tried,
and the iron pressure of habit in sip
ping and even gulping water, wine,
milk, tea, or coffee while eating is
realized. The very fact of prohibition
seems to make one more intensely
thirsty, and the juiciest food takes on
the astringent dryness of chewed
pomegranate rind. Of course, one be
comes accustomed to it after awhile,
eventually does not feel any desire for
liquids at the prohibited times, and
even finds less disposition to drink at
anytime than he had before. Then
his reward comes, not only in the re
duction of flesh, but in a surprising,
diminution of the nuisance of perspira
tion, which is the misery of all fat
men.
It must not be supposed that this
shutting off of liquids is the whole of the
treatment, though it appears to be the
most important requirement That
rankinsr next to it is that one must not
gorge with food, especially food in
which sugar and starch are largely
component parts.
The Iron Chancellor still lives by
Schweninger rules and in doing so
keeps down his tendency to growing
fat and remains a wonder of vitality
and vigor at his advanced age. No
longer ago than last April one of the
sDecial disnatches told how he re
stricted himself in eating to a light
breakfast and substantial dinmr, with
no liquids at meals and only a glass.of
wjne daily, taken just before retiring.
One experiment with the bogus system)
of three pints of waterbefore breakfast
by Bismarck would doubtless afford)
Germany another first-class fuueraL
There is no royal road to relief from
corpulence that may be traveled with
ease and safety, and without self-sacrifice.
Nostrums are from time to time
advertised as affording it such as one
now boomed in England, and finding
not a few dupes here but they do not.
Starvation a la Banting, and the nos
trum cures that profess to reduce glut
tons while practicing their gluttony if
thev will onlv "take a wineglasstul at
each meal," are alike dangerous hum
bugs. Renouncing liquids seems to be
demonstrated the safest and best thing
when accompanied by due moderation
in eating. But in no case is it abso
lutely safe for a fat person to adopt any
really effective measures for reducing
weight without thorough preliminary
knowledge of the actual condition at
his vital organs. X. T. Sun.
POOR MARBLE HEART.7
Ho Meets tho Ms With tho Iron Fist aa
A young man from some interior
town, who was ia that condition known
as "sprung was seeking a skirmish;
at the corner of Woodward aad Jeffer
son avenues yesterday. He said ha
was the young man of the Marble
Heart, whatever that is, and that ho
felt lonesome because he hadn't shed
somebody's blood for three long hours.
The policeman on the beat warned in
a fatherly way to scatter himself over
the city, but he replied:
"Not a scatter! Honor chains me
here. I am the man of the Marble
Heart."
"Yes, but you don't want to be locked
up. I take it," protested the officer.
"There's no use in getting into trouble
because your heart isn't made on the
regular plan."
But he wouldn't go. He wanted gore
and other high-priced summer goods,'
and waiting until the officer was a block
away he bristled up to a man with a
basket on his arm and dared him to
look cross-eyed.
"I warn ye to kape off!" exclaimed
the man as he moved along.
The man of the Marble Heart moved
after him. Then the basket dropped,
the young man went into the gutter in
a heap, and a sport declared him
knocked out in the first round. The
policeman returned and picked him up
and called the wagon, and it was not
until the victim reached the station
that he spoke. Then he said :
"S'all right Man of the Marble
Heart can't stand up to the Man with
the Iron Fist. Didn't know it before,
but I shall remember it now always
remember it" Detroit Free Press
The following from a San Diego
newspaper tells of Southern California's
bunted boom: "Eight restaurants
closed in one day, 16 clerks discharged
from one dry-goods store, 1.600 empty
rooms in lodging-houses, hotel rates
reduced $2 per day, shaving reduced
from 25 cents to 10. coffee from 10 to
5. Real estate agents leaving by tho
score.'
"Can you give me a little break
fast, ma'am?" pleaded the tramp; I'm
hungry and cold. I slept out-doors
last night, and the rain came down in
sheets." "You should have got in be
tween the sheets," said the woman
kindly,- as she motioned him to "taw
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